Be her mother, not her sorrow
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: Alma, the mother of Historia Reiss, pretty much the worst example of a mother within the world of Attack on Titan. But what if she was offered a chance, only a chance, to become a better example and save her relationship with her daughter? What if, when faced with Kenny's blade, a man came and froze time to offer her this choice? If you know him, then you need no introduction.


Creation began on 09-09-18

Creation ended on 09-22-18

Attack on Titan

Be her mother, not her sorrow

A/N: What if Alma was saved from Kenny, but not without a condition she had to uphold, no matter what she believed?

Before Kenny Ackerman slit her throat, the world around Alma seemed to be locked in time. Rod, Historia, the people that came for them, even the knife Kenny had in his hand, all frozen in time, like the world was frozen.

"You're wondering what's going on," a male voice spoke, and she looked over to the front porch of the house, seeing a man as dark as the night, dressed in simple clothing like people from villages scattered throughout the lands within the Walls, sitting on the steps. "You can move away from the knife."

Alma slowly moved away from the knife and stood in front of the man.

"Who are you?" She asked him.

"A god, a demon, an angel, a Good Samaritan, a thief, a freak," he expressed cryptically. "I have been known by many names and designations over many lifetimes. I am a man of light and darkness, a brother to all that possess souls, and a man that lives to fix the mistakes that were made not too long ago. I am Brother Correction, Alma, and the mistake I'm here to correct…is your relationship with your daughter by saving your life."

"What? Why can't you just get rid of her if it'll save me? She's been nothing but trouble ever since she was born."

"Oh? In what way is a young girl that you spoke to only twice in her lifetime, both times filled with contempt on your part, when all she desired was just your love and acceptance, nothing but trouble? I've seen Historia's past and future, and while the future is murky unless the present is changed, she deserves more than what she was denied, which includes a positive relationship with her mother, which means you must live and cease your contempt towards her because she's the real victim here. She is the victim, Alma, not you."

Alma was shocked to hear those words from this man that was keeping time frozen around them.

"You know, your name has a meaning when it revolves around children," he told her, "and your status as a parent is one that will follow you beyond the grave, whether you like it or not. 'Mommy', 'Mother', 'Mama', 'Okasan', 'Mutter', those are the word gifts of the gods themselves when women are blessed with the gift of children. Just as you were a gift to your mother from the gods themselves years ago, Historia is your gift from the gods themselves, and she wants nothing from you but your love and acceptance, which you have given her none of…but still can."

"What do you want from me?"

Brother Correction walked over towards her daughter and placed a caressing left hand on her face before he turned to face Alma again.

"If I change nothing, you will still die, and it will be like this conversation never took place," he told her. "If I save your life, my price is that you do the one thing you've purposely refused to do ever since Historia drew her first breath of life. What I want from you, Alma…is for you to be her mother and not her sorrow. Some of the most difficult relationships people have with their past and future…are the ones represented by the ties of blood. One day, Historia will be a mother herself, but her only recollection of what a mother is supposed to do, supposed to be, will only be from what is said about them in books, not from personal experience, so she'll have no idea how to truly experience that rite of passage when the time comes. Do you really want for the end of your life to be your last words toward her those of scorn…or do you want to live and save your relationship with her while you still have the chance to? Every day, every week, every year that passes…is another chance, another opportunity…to change your fate and the fate of those around you. But right now, in this moment frozen in time, lady, you only have this one chance to decide, and you must decide here and now. Do you want life or death, disgrace or redemption, sorrow or joy, Alma? Decide now, for yourself and for her."

He was letting her make the choice, and once she made the choice, things would either be as they were…or change.

Alma was at a crossroads now. If only for a second, her fate was in the balance, but only for this second. She had to choose between being a mother to her daughter…or leaving their relationship as something else that could've been but never was. If she chose to be a mother, her life would be saved, but if she refused, she would die.

Suddenly, she saw a glimpse of her daughter's future. It was only a brief moment, but it was long enough to see that her state of being…was anything but happy. She was older, but her face was deprived of any joy, of happiness, her belly swollen with child, but she couldn't see Historia as someone able to do right by her child if her own parents never did right by her to start with…and the worst was yet to come unless her fate was changed.

"You see it, too?" Brother Correction asked her. "That's the fate that awaits her in under a decade because your death, the situation with the Titans, her father's family's manipulations and the outside world that have other plans that don't add up to her own desires for happiness. If I change the outcome here, her fate can be changed along with those of others."

But if Alma chose not to do what he asked of her, Historia was doomed to this fate…and may very well die from it.

"Have you decided?" He asked her.

"I have," she answered him.

-x-

Kenny Ackerman, just as he was about to slice Alma's throat with the blade, suddenly felt something pierce the skin of his neck, causing him to drop the knife as he fell down.

Around them, his people fell to the ground, preventing Historia and Rod from seeing Alma get killed by any of them.

Alma got up and looked at her daughter…and ran over and hugged her.

"I'm sorry, Historia," she apologized to her. "I'm so sorry. Please, forgive me."

"Mother," Historia uttered, raising her arms up to hold her back.

From the shadows and the distance, watching as the horse-driven carriage took off with the three, leaving Kenny and his group on the ground, Brother Correction smiled; in the end, he had to hope that Alma, against all odds and her own hatred towards Historia, would see the light and begin to go down the path of redemption. Now, stepping out of the shadows, he walked over towards the fallen man that he shot with a dart to paralyze him and his people, looking down at him as he looked up.

"You're not looking too well, Kenny, the Ripper," he uttered, "or should I just call you Kenny Ackerman, just to be formal?"

"You," Kenny uttered, weakened. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"I know exactly what I've done. I saved two lives this evening, one of which you were going to snuff out in front of the other when it wasn't necessary. By stopping you, fate has changed."

"The girl will be a dooming blight upon us all in the future because of you."

"That girl…will never know how close she came to losing her mother because of you. And nobody else will know who or where you were because none of you are staying in these Walls any longer."

Seconds later, nobody was the wiser to even question where a lone man had suddenly disappeared with a bunch of fallen people in front of a lonely house on a farm.

-x-

Sitting on his throne as he returned from relocating Kenny's squad across the planet in some remote town thousands of miles from where the Titans resided, Brother Correction sighed as he raised his left hand up to reveal a blue crystal sphere to observe how fate was deviated with the life of Alma saved from death. What he saw was unexpected: Alma, despite still being alive, was looking down at Historia, who seemed to be in recovery from a fight because she was wearing cadet uniform; somehow, despite the changed fate, the girl still ended up in the cadet corps and was aiming to join the Survey Corps to face the Titans.

" _As soon as you wake, your father and I are taking you home, Historia,"_ he heard Alma say, actually sounding concerned. _"You shouldn't have to fight the Titans because everyone else is. They'll find a way to deal with them without you, and when they do, at least you'll be alive to see a world without Titans."_

 _So Historia made the choice to fight the Titans on her own,_ Brother Correction realized. _Nobody forced her into it. And where is Ymir in this new existence? Where is she?_

He searched the new world until he found that Ymir was also in the cadet corps, but had been trying to convince Historia to join the Military Police or Garrison to avoid the Titans…and it was joked upon by several of the young people that the woman had a crush on the girl, something that was ignored by Eren, Armin and Mikasa because it was none of their business. Digging deeper into the lives of Historia and Alma, forward and backwards, he saw that the two had more conversations than a mother and daughter normally had within the last few years, something other people attributed to Alma "making up for lost time", even if half their conversations were just trivialities.

"I'll watch and wait to see what else happens," he told himself, seeing a scene where Historia and Ymir watched as the Titan that was known to be Eren Yeager carried a large boulder towards the breach in Wall Rose. "The deviation in Alma's fate actually reduced the number of deaths down to just three people. Not bad. Good luck on you as you continue to live your new life, Alma. If you can stay true to your mended relationship with Historia…then you both can avoid cruel fates."

Fin

A/N: I hope those of you that read this find some degree of comfort in such a possibility, since Alma was one of the coldest examples of bad parents in the anime/manga universe. If faced with death if offered a chance to change her ways, surely any mother would do so to avoid dying and find themselves doing better because of it.


End file.
